Voltage Optimisation (VO) is being offered as an energy efficiency option by a wide variety
of companies for domestic, commercial and industrial customers. Although VO can give significant
energy and cost savings, care is required to ensure that appropriate VO equipment is targeted
at the most cost effective applications, particularly with regard to the changing nature of
electrical loads. The two most important facts concerning VO are:

In most cases the majority of energy savings from VO are due to
reduced services such as less light output

The minority of energy savings from VO are
due to reduced losses in energy consuming equipment

If this is news to you, read on...

What is Voltage Optimisation and how does it work?

Electricity customers around the world receive a supply voltage within regulatory
defined limits; for example in the UK the limits are currently 230/400V +10/-6%,
whereas most of Europe operates on 230/400V +/-10%. Power consuming equipment will
usually operate across a range of different voltages, but is designed for a nominal
or 'nameplate' voltage, at which it will deliver the specified service, such as X Lumens
for a light or Y kW of shaft power for a motor.
When equipment is supplied with a higher voltage than the design voltage it may produce
more 'service' (greater light output for example) or may deliver the same service at a
lower efficiency (greater loss), or a combination of both, and vice versa if supplied
at a lower voltage than its design voltage.

Apart from the difficulty of choosing the 'right' VO equipment, potential users face
a baffling set of claims for the benefits of VO, with many equipment suppliers making
claims such as, "...can save you up to 26% of your total electricity...".
The reality is complicated, specific to the types of load a premises has, depends on
the effect the user expects, and should take account of the risks involved for sensitive
loads.

Example showing how energy savings are clearly achieved through VO applied to
fluorescent lighting, but also showing how illumination is reduced.

Few people truly understand the most
important reality of VO as defined by the bulleted points at the head of the page; the
majority of energy savings result from reduced 'service', whereas the minority of
energy savings result from reduced losses. This needn't necessarily be a barrier to
applying VO to make energy and cost savings, but customers particularly need to be aware that
large energy savings are usually associated with lost lighting output - in some circumstances
the loss of illumination (in percentage terms) can be greater than the energy savings,
particularly with regard to gas discharge lighting - see the chart above for an example
of the energy saving and loss of illumination associated with fluorescent tube lighting.
However, it is equally important to realise that a workplace designed to have sufficient
illumination according to the nameplate specification will be over-lit if the supply voltage
is higher than the nameplate voltage.

Some of the many considerations with VO:

Electronically interfaced loads may have little or no sensitivity to supply
voltage - inverters, most new consumer electronics, computers, LED lighting,
ErP compliant circulators, etc.

Reducing supply voltage to the 'norm' may increase the life of some devices

Supply and wiring impedance must be assessed before applying VO - care required
for rural applications

Lightly loaded or idling induction motors are likely to save energy and run
cooler at lower voltages, but heavily loaded motors may increase consumption
and run hotter

Secondary effects of VO need to be accounted - for example shaded-pole induction
motors run slower at lower voltages

In some areas supply voltage is rising

Not all supply voltages are too high

In some sectors average demand is falling and benefits from VO are reducing -
particularly domestic

Electricity costs are rising, so benefits from VO may increase

...and many more factors ....

The situation with motor loads can be even more confusing. A lightly-loaded induction motor
will deliver essentially the same service at the lower end of the statutory voltage range
but consume less power, whereas a motor loaded to near its rated output will consume more
power at the lower end of the voltage range. This effect may be magnified in the case of
refrigeration, air conditioning and heat-pump equipment where the compressor motor is often
sized for starting torque, but runs the majority of the time at a relatively light load.
However, an increasing amount of equipment, particularly air conditioning and heat-pumps,
utilise inverters which usually have little or no sensitivity to the supply voltage.

Voltage Optimisation for all but the largest customers (with their own supply transformer) usually
involves the addition of one of a variety of forms of subtractive transformers that 'trim' the
supply voltage to either reduce the supply voltage by a pre-defined ratio or may also include
mechanisms to vary the voltage reduction ratio to give a stabilised, lower voltage for loads.
There are many subtle variations of transformer types to achieve VO, but essentially they all
work on the principle of transforming only a limited proportion of the supply voltage so that
less iron and copper is required than normally associated with an isolating transformer. The
choice of VO can be daunting; each manufcaturer makes claims for the advantage of their
technology over their competitors' and the overall benefits of VO are presented with
various degrees of hyperbole.

Many factors are driving change in the types of load connected to the mains supply. The
Eco Design Directive for example has resulted in the rapid phase-out of tungsten filament
lighting and will soon eliminate the magnetic ballast for fluorescent lighting. Most
small power loads are now supplied by Switched Mode Power Supplies, such that small transformers
are rarely found. In the future it is likely that more and more loads will be electronically
interfaced to the supply, often resulting in little or no sensitivity to supply voltage.
Although some applications may still benefit from VO, care needs to be taken to ensure that
the benefits calculated today persist into the future.

In general, the use of VO can be a far more complicated subject than some suppliers indicate.
Just a few of the issues are outlined in the bulleted points to the left. KinXerG Limited
can help your organisation understand where VO is likely to provide the maximum benefit,
what equipment is likely to be suitable for your application, and how the benefits may change
over time as equipment is replaced.